Gretchen Kinkel, Emma Rosenthal and Megan Schaeffer cooking Kartoffelpuffer

Käsespätzle, Reibekuchen, Spinatknödel?!  German cuisine is difficult to define as “one” cuisine as it is shaped by many regional dishes and specialties. In our German 120 class (second semester German), students learn about the German cuisine and discuss typical dishes and regional specialties. Very often, students express their love for certain dishes during these classes and find it hard just “to talk” about them. This spring semester, German 120 students did not only discuss German cuisine in class, but also cooked some of the dishes themselves with their professor Antje Krüger. During a cooking night, students tried the following dishes: Kartoffelpuffer (potato pancakes), Wiener Schnitzel (Viennese Schnitzel), Grüner Salat (mixed garden salad with a yoghurt dressing) and Laugenbrezeln (pretzels). Aside from a short “trial-and-error” phase with regards to frying, and weighing some of the ingredients with the metric system, all of the dishes turned out very well. The students got a good taste of German cuisine and of its reputation as comfort food in its own right.  — Antje Krüger

Michelle McAdams and Gabriel Engfer preparing Schnitzel